Horace Walpole is credited by many with the invention of the Gothic Novel. The author claimed to have written 'The Castle of Otranto' - a medieval mystery story set in a haunted castle peopled by fantastic characters - after s night of dreams. It is a fitting origin for this dark book of terror and mystery, an attempt, in Walpole's own words, "to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern". Walpole's literary experiment has proved to be a great success, and The Castle of Otranto has rarely been out of print since its first publication in 1764.